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THE COMING GOVERNMENT. 



BY 



THE SOCIETY FOR THE ELEVATION OF LIBERAL GOVERNMENT." 



The dread of innovation is a peculiarity to 
individuals and nations. Many persons get 
into certain channels or ruts on all subjects, 
and are ever afterward unchangeable. Any 
deviation suggested to them is dreaded as an 
innovation. Neighborhoods, and even na- 
tions, get into such ruts, continuing to live 
in the same wretchedness as did their ances- 
tors for centuries previous, attached to some 
form of government or religion that seems to 
them perfection, but which is in reality their 
greatest misfortune. Such people are not 
aware that there are higher conditions to be 
attained. The average Englishman cannot 
be persuaded that the British Government 
has any imperfections, notwithstanding the 
immigration away from those islands, which 
is an irrefutable argument to the contrary. 
In the south of France, to this day, the farm- 
ers plow with a forked stick drawn by one 
cow and two women. These people boast of 
the glories of France, and of its supremacy in 
civilization ! What wonder, then, if we Ameri- 
cans boast of our American Constitution ! If 
other people cannot see their defects, bow can 
we see ours ? In one breath we boast of the 
progress we make in civilization and liberty, 
and in the next of our Constitution, which is 
fixed. If the average American is told that 
there is a higher order of government than I 
the present, he flies off in a tangent, in dread ! 
of innovation, never conceiving that there j 
should be an onward march in governments j 
commensurate with the progress of moral and 
intellectual development in the people. The j 
average American will tell us a jury should j 
be composed of twelve men. And if we ask j 
the reason for that particular number, he will ! 
give the same answer the Frenchman does as j 
to why a plow should be drawn by one cow 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 
1876, 

By The Society for the Elevation of Liberal 
Government, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washing- 
ton, 



and two women,* " because it is the estab- 
lished practice." 

An ex -President of the United States 
boasted in a public speech on the elasticity of 
the Constitution, and of the power in the peo- 
ple to change it whenever they chose ; and in 
the same speech he cautioned us to ever stand 
by the Constitution as a landmark of our fore- 
fathers never to be changed by mortals. Such 
talk is about on a par with most of the 
speeches of our statesmen : a kind of petti- 
fogging bombast to catch the rabble. It is a 
question " whether we can alter the Constitu 
tion." 

But why should it be altered ? What ails 
the Constitution ? We answer, broadly and 
flatly, that our Constitution, and. the constitu- 
tion of every State in the Union, contains one 
weak spot whereby most of the mischief has 
crept in. In the Constitution we provide for 
certain courts, and these courts in reality be- 
come our government ; for they exist above 
all else This would do well enough if our 
courts were honest. They are not. We all 
know this. They have become fish in the 
market, to be bougnt and sold. We can- 
not touch them for it. If we want to 
impeach them, we are obliged to try them 
before their own fellows — fellows that are 
also fish in the market. In our Constitution 
we are guaranteed a trial by jury in civil 
suits involving a sum of upward of twenty 
dollars. This law, it is estimated, is violated 
upward of eight hundred times every 
year in the single city of New- York. The 
suits are sent to a referee ; tried in some out- 
of-the-way private office. Sometimes the de- 
fendant knows nothing of the suit till after 
the trial. And yet how few of these judges 
are impeached ! Not one in a thousand ; for 
his trial would also be a thing to be bought 

* "Why should not a jury be composed of twenty, or 
fifty, or even a hundred and fifty men, in important 
cases, and a certain proportion of their number be de- 
cisive ? And instead of taking illiterate men, why 
not have them intelligent and responsible? 



2 



and sold, even in the absence of the prosecu- 
tor. 

And here can we trace all our present politi- 
cal degradation. Some constitutional body 
must be provided -who shall have a surveil- 
■ lance over all elected officers. To this we must 
\ come ; we must have something stronger and 
better than investigating committees. To do 
this we must annul our present impeachment 
laws in the Constitution, and possess that 
power ourselves. 

Let us not be afraid of, nor indifferent 
to, the official crimes that increase with 
the increase of wealth and population. 
For is it not true that there is a radical de- 
fect somewhere ? A century ago no one 
could have persuaded the Chinese that their 
great wall was but an emblem of folly ; and, 
in reason, shall we boast that our Constitution 
will never receive the same mental deprecia- 
tion? 

A French Ambassador unqualifiedly as- 
serted that the proper proportion of soldiery 
was as one to every thirty -two inhabitants. 
When informed that America kept no such 
standing army as that, be said, " It is 
impossible ! No country is safe without 
that proportion. It is a settled philosophy 
of government." He could not be persuaded 
that the safety of a nation law in any other 
way than soldiery. And are we so crys- 
tallized that our favorite instrument, the Con- 
stitution, must ever be a blind to our reason ? 
Has it never occurred to us that our ten 
thousand law-books with our thirty thousand 
judges, always newly elected to give as many 
different interpretations of tbem, all based 
on a defective constitution, should become 
tyrants, anarchists, mocking at justice when- 
ever pecuniary gain was manifest ? Are 
we right in saying we want less law, 
with more privilege for the people to decide 
what is right in their own eyes V Is not this 
the demand resulting from increasing intelli- 
gence ? For, surely, the inevitable tendency 
of the advance of intellect is toward individual 
liberty. The multiplicity of laws is the 
opposite of this. Our government, from high 
to the lov*est departments, has become the 
boon of base men ; our nation is filled with 
wild, rampant illusionists groping about for 
reform. Are we wise enough to make the 
necessary change before we culminate in total 
ruin? 

But let us look at some of our short- 
sightedness. With the demolition of birth- 
right aristocracy, as in our original Starting 
place, the acquisition of wealth became our 
only guiding star to supremacy. Wealth 
alone is our aristocracy. We made no provi- 
sion for supremacy for our most moral and in- 
telligent citizens. Money ranks above all else 
in this country. And this is the incentive to 
get money. Our children, born and brought 
up with this etermal example before them, 
determine to enter the race for money. And 
can we not, with all our boasted sagacity, 
find any other outlet for supremacy of char- 



acter ? Shall our heirs, forever, be prosti- 
tuted to money-getting ? Must their latent 
resources for moral and intellectual pursuits 
be forever smothered out ? It is demonstrated 
that hereditary aristocracy is unjust to the in- 
ferior classes ; and we have, also, now ex- 
perienced that our system has become oppres- 
sive to those who are morally andjintellectual- 
ly the superior class ; for these are banished 
from making and executing the laws. Being 
in the minority, this part of the community 
cannot be elected. The politician affiliates, 
either by nature or by flattery, with the most 
unscrupulous and illiterate, who are ever Mie 
majority, and the result is, as often asserted, 
an honest man cannot be elected. This 
right to vote cannot be taken away from the 
people. In this country, never. And yet, under 
our government as it now exists, the real 
benefactor to the country, the man who pays 
taxes, has no more to say on government 
finance than has the mendicant, who pays 
nothing. If the elected officer steals the 
money, it is the benefactor's money stolen. 
The mendicant loses nothing. Who, there- 
fore, should be the prosecutor ? Here is a 
great folly in our present government. Our 
officers are professedly the agents and repre- 
sentatives of the people. But we have no 
authority over them after they are once 
elected. Have we not sense enough to retain 
some supremacy over our own agents ? We 
have heard of the owner of a farm who ap- 
pointed an agent to carry it on for him ; but 
when the agent sold all the stock and crops, 
and pocketed the money, the owner threaten- 
ed him. " Sir," said he, " for this, sir, I shall 
discharge you at the expiration of your 
agency. I shall then appoint another agent." 
We Americans, the type of civilization, treat 
our thieving officials like that. We dis- 
charge them at the expiration of their term 
of office. Thisis a punishment indeed tem- 
pered with mercy ! So much mercy that it 
has given us a whole government of thieves. 
These troubles have not always been with 
us. When our country was young and 
poor and had no credit ; with no rich charters 
to grant ; no money to handle, and no temp- 
tations, we got along well enough. In the 
poorer districts and small villages we do well 
enough now. In such places politicians find 
little to steal. In sucli sparsely-settled places 
there are still to be found judges who cannot 
be bribed ; judges who scarcely ever write 
out their decisions on a case before trial. In 
the densely-settled States, cities, and in gov- 
ernment rings, it is sadly different. Officers 
of government are constantly tempted by 
vast sums of money, or land appropriations, 
or commissions. And these temptations 
extend all the way down to our common 
courts, our aldermen, school -trustees, and 
road-supervisors. Even our coroners specu- 
late in bribes on the dead, as to whether it 
was an accident or a murder, according to the 
highest bidder. Our courts imprison men 
for one, two, and even three years before trial, 



.S7S 



patiently tempting the unfortunate to bribe 
his way out. Even convicts can get oat of 
prison for a bribe, and the most notorious of 
culprits can go scot-free on a full purse. 
False suits are put up against bonest citizens 
on the most frivolous pretence, and used as 
thinly-covered blackmail by government 
officials and by lawyers as a means of ex- 
- tortion. On the top of this mischief we have in 
most of the States a law oflibel whereby a truth 
may be a libel. This gives the outrages 
full sway. For if any man presume to specify 
that which he can prove in regard to any of 
these accusations, he can be arrested and im- 
prisoned for months and even years before 
trial ; and the cheapest and easiest way he 
could himself become extricated from his 
troubles would be by a bribe. If one of us 
know the grand jury to be packed and en- 
gaged in fraud, or of having been bribed for a 
corrupt decision, we dare not publish the fact, 
no matter if we could prove it. We would be 
arrested for libel, imprisoned for months or 
perhaps years before trial ; for the court can 
place the amount of bail beyond our reach; and 
if we were ever tried, it would not be to dis- 
prove or to substantiate the truth of the mat- 
ter we published, but merely to prove that 
we published it. And on just such grounds 
as this have our courts imprisoned our fellow- 
citizens lor years. Some have even died in 
prison rather than bribe their way out. 
Others have been arrested for libel, irnpris 
oned for many months, and then tried for 
some other offence. In the large cities these 
things have become so common as scarcely to 
excite comment. Aside from the asserted 
right of courts to s j nd cases to referees to be 
tried in secret, or to enrich some favored per- 
son, there is nearly as much baseness used in 
the courts' pretended prerogative in presence 
of a jury.* The judge very frequently in his 
charge to the jury becomes a pettifogger of 
one side of the case. The judge assumes to 
explain the law to the jury unasked. This 
is an insult to our intelligence ; for the jury 
should be for j ustice in the suit on trial, for 
which there is no law till after their decision. 
The law on cases prior is for them to 
ask for. The judge has no moral right 
to |say to the jury, "You must find so- 
and-so, or according to the law you shall find 
thus-and-so ;" for that makes the jury his 
slaves. This makes our trials by j ury but a 
mockery. But even worse violations of jus- 
tice ar« becoming common with our judges : 
juries have brought in a certain verdict, and 
the judge has set it aside, decided the case the 
other way, and discharged the jury with a 
reprimand. And this, too, is done some- 
times directly in opposition to the written 
laws. And why shall it not be so ? If the 

* A foolish practive is now common in New- York, 
which consists in appealing from a jury's decision to 
a higher court! For in this way the judges can su- 
persede the jury, and its value to the citizen is lost. 
This is exactly the reverse of civil liberty, Appeals 
should he the other way. 



judge can make a thousand or five thousand 
dollars by it, what-are " we going to do about 
it "? What can we do? Our hands are tied. 
We have given away our liberty. The courts 
can scourge us if they choose. Are these the 
courts before whom we should try the Credit 
Mobilier politicians? Are these the courts 
before whom we should try our merchant 
princes made rich on smuggling ? Why, 
such suits make them fat ! We often wonder 
why a man that steals fifty dollars goes to 
prison, while he who steals hundreds of thou- 
sands goes free. Why, indeed ! And are we 
such dolts that we see not that the principle 
on which our government is founded is rotten ? 
Not democracy or republicanism, for these 
we have not. And these are the things we 
must have. Instead of we being subjects to 
our officers, they must be subject to us. We 
can only treat that man with contempt who 
will say that if a person fails to get justice 
in one court, he can appeal to a higher one. 
Such an argument is an avoidance of the 
question. It is saying to us, if a man burns 
down your house, you can build another. We 
want to devise a power to punish fraudulent 
officials, or rather to prevent them from com- 
mitting frauds. And the only way for us to 
do it is to establish a power higher than they 
are, before whom they alone are to be tried. 
We know that politics is in rings and 
cliques. Officers elected work but for their 
own or their party's gain. The good of the 
people is nothing ; truth is nothing ; for it is a 
notorious fact that not more than one man in 
twenty in office has the slightest regard for 
the sacredness of an oath. As soon as they 
are sworn in they immediately lay their 
oaths aside, and devote themselves to form- 
ing combinations for making money. In these 
private caucuses bribes and perquisites are dis- 
cussed in the most unreserved manner. Bills 
to be passed ; commissioners to be appointed ; 
moneys to be appropriated ; dividends expect- 
ed, and amount of bribes necessary to make 
each project successful. Nearly every great 
speech made in our much-lauded Congress is 
but the voice of an auctioneer for a higher 
bid on something that is to minister to his 
particular clique. There is no need in hiding 
this matter. We should catch hold of it and 
endeavor to remove it, rather than through 
national pride ignore it. Let us not deceive 
ourselves by saying it is but once in a while 
a " Credit Mobilier " or an " Indian ring," for 
it is in almost every detail of our government. 
It runs through nearly every bill; it is not 
only in the national government, but in the 
State and city. While the Congressman is 
speculating on his vote, the governor is 
watching for a slice of railroad, and the al- 
derman is bargaining for a bribe on gar- 
bage. These things have continued until we 
are almost bankrupt. We have a mons- 
trous national debt, a monstrous State debt, 
and a city debt, not one of which we 
are prepared to liquidate. Our officers talk 
glibly about convertible bonds and redeem- 



4 



able paper, but we get deeper in debt 
all tlie while. We are taxed millions and 
millions of dollars annually for the Indians, 
but our officers steal a large portion of the 
money.* And shall we try those officers by 
merely handing them over to themselves, to 
be tried by their own clique ? For such is 
indeed our Constitution. Bead iu any way 
you will, here is the loop-hole for crime in 
office. Our villains try themselves. The 
American people are in a rut in believing in 
the immaculate nature of the Constitution. 
Instead of having a government whose offi- 
cers are the servants of the people, and subject 
to their jurisdiction, which is the only true 
democracy, we have an institution that per- 
mits the election of bad men to office to rule 
over us. The following is a fair sample of 
thousands of cases, large or small : 

[From the Philadelphia Evenine Telegraph, Aug. 12.] 

Mr. William Welsh, of this city, has ad- 
dressed the following open letter to the 
President : 

Philadelphia, August 11, 1875. 

To the President of the United States : 
Dear Sir : I invite your attention to an 
overt act by your representatives at the head 
of the Department of the Interior, which, 
with its attendant circumstances, reveals the 
lamentable moral condition of that depart- 
ment, and demands prompt action by you. I 
refer to a libellous attack on Mr. Samuel 
Walker, the confidential clerk of your ori- 
ginal Board of Indian Commissioners, on 
account of official services performed by him 
in detecting and exposing frauds under the 
authority and direction of that Board. This 
libel, I have good reason to believe, was con- 
cocted and published by General B. R. Cowan, 
the Assistant Secretary of the Interior, with 
the cordial approval of Secretary Delano. 
This libellous paper, I am credibly informed, 
was rejected by the agent of the Associated 
Press, and then given by General Cowan to a 
correspondent of the Keening Bulletin, of this 
city, in which paper it was published on the 
2d instant, and to the correspondent of the 
Inter-Ocean, of Chicago, where it was also 
printed. It was copied from the latter paper 
into the Washington Chronicle of the 6th 
instant. This is the culmination of a series 
of covert attacks by Secretary Delano and 
General Cowan on an officer of a co-ordinate 
branch of the government, because he ex- 
posed frauds that it was the duty of the In- 
terior Department to check. * * * 



* Thousands and thousands of helpless Indians, and 
even women and children, have been murdered by 
our government officers. The ponies and cattle thus 
captured are seized by the murderers as trophies of 
their own, and their exploits are heralded by them- 
selves as great victories over the "savages." Up to 
this period of our national history there has been no 
civil tribunal before whom these villains could be con- 
victed. Nor can they be tried and punishished until 
we have a power not connected with politics. 



FRAUDS IN CATTLE DELIVERED, 

at the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies 
had become so notorious that the Board of 
Indian Commissioners, although most 
anxious for your sake to work in harmony 
with Secretary Delano, were constrained to 
reject vouchers for cattle to a very large 
amount. Although more beef was delivered 
at these agencies in six months than appear 
ed from the liberal estimate made by the de- 
partment to be necessary for a whole year, 
yet Secretary Delano paid these rejected 
vouchers in full. This course pursued by a 
Cabinet officer compelled the Board of Indian 
Commissioners either to resign at once or to 
ascertain if their rejection of vouchers was 
justifiable, and then to report to you or to 
Congress. As Mr. Delano had paid vouchers 
for the cattle after the Board had warned him 
of irregularity, illegality, and of their sus- 
picion of fraud, he could not be relied on to 
search for evidence against himself. My 
former confidence in Secretary Delano had, 
from sad experience, so far decreased that I 
suggested to the Board of Indian Commis- 
sioners, through its chairman, that a con- 
fidential agent should be sent to make a 
thorough investigation, without notice to the 
department or the agents. Mr. Felix R. 
Brunot, the chairman, after conferring with 
his colleagues, concurred in this suggestion, 
and appointed Mr. Samuel Walker, the effi- 
cient and conscientious clerk of the Board, 
and sent him to the Spotted Tail and Red 
Cloud agencies. * * * * The 
report of Mr. Walker revealed so many 
frauds, and so fully coufirmed the action if 
the Board in rejecting voubhers, that Mr. Be- 
lano determined to send out a so called investi- 
gating C( ' m mission after notice had been given 
for six weeks to the Indian a,gents and con- 
tractors to prepare for an investigation." 

* -X- -X- -X- -X- * 

It is not necessary to quote further. The 
last sentence tells the whole story. The 
accused party appoints the investigating 
committee. Notice is first given that 
an investigating committee are coming. 
Now, this is the almost universal cus- 
tom. And, pray, what great loop-hole 
was there, in our Constitution that should 
ever have called these committees into ex- 
istence ? Who are they, and of what respon- 
sibility ? Why should they investigate ? Is 
it not your right, our rights, as American 
taxpayers to investigate ? These investigat- 
ing committees are usurpers of our rights. 
They have no responsibility by natural right. 
They are whitewashed ; fish in the market, 
to be bought and sold by culprits. And now, 
in all seriousness, let us ask ourselves what 
great want called them into existence? Will 
we stubbornly persist in saying our Constitu- 
tion was broad enough to meet all the 
emergencies in delinquent officers? We 
can only treat with contempt any per- 
son who still persists in talking 



about electing only honest men to office. 
Such pretensions have been mooted for the 
last fifty years, and they have failed every 
time. Fifty years is long enough to try it ; 
and especially since we get farther off every 
year. Now let us survey a few well-known 
sijins of the times: That we are mistaken in 
believing our government has a good consti- 
tution, and in believing that we are republi- 
can or democratic in the fullest sense, since 
our elected officers are merely monarchs for 
their respective terms and places. That we 
should have a supervision over our elected 
officers. That our legislators and judges, from 
Jong association with our written laws, have 
become insensible to the higher law of moral 
intelligence. That a large majority of our 
officers are or were lawyers, men incapable of 
receiving or perceiving truth, but who use 
the written laws only as a subterfuge behind 
which to hide crime. That every law of the 
land is violated by our courts, who render 
new decisions to justify their faults, and 
that these new decisions then become laws 
of precedent for others to follow ; and these 
corruptions have continued until our whole 
country is flooded with such a conflict of pre- 
cedents that it is now possible for a court to 
decide any case either way he chooses, and 
then quote some legal decision to uphold 
himself. That, owing to these things, it is 
almost impossible to punish a politician, a 
large defaulter, or a political officer by whom 
the nation is robbed to the extent of many 
millions of dollars annually. That the 
only avenue open to power and respect 
in this country is by dollars and cents, no 
matter how obtained. That another avenue 
should be opened whereby the moral and 
intelligent may rise to supremacy. That 
nearly all this latter class of Americans 
are heartily dissatisfied with our oft-lauded 
government, and long for a change. That 
this feeling is rapidly increasing amonir 
the people. That strikes, communists, and 
other dissatisfied elements are increasing 
rapidly. That we have found that the 
present form of government does well 
enough in sparsely-settled districts, but is 
totally unsuited to a dense or wealthy po- 
pulation. That this latter fact proves that a 
change ere long is inevitable. That it is 
utterly impossible, and not desirable, to 
abridge the elective franchise ; that it is 
evident it will ere long be extended to wo- 
man ; but that such extension will lessen 
government fraud there is no proof what- 
ever. That we as a people can never go 
backward, into monarchy, but must look 
ahead, for some new adaptation commensu- 
rate with our advanced intelligence. 

Here we should digress for a moment, to put 
forth this problem : Can two increasing op- 
posing elements continue long to live in a 
republic ? When the North was for abolition, 
the South was for slavery. They came to 
battle, and one gained the victory. So the 
approaching conflict between capital and 



labor must necessarily be fought in this coun- 
try ; for here we are educating the people ; 
here we are making the populace discon- 
tented with servitude to capital. 

Capital may become in individual hands a 
tyrant ; a combination of individual capital- 
ists may overcome the rights and privileges 
of laborers ; a combination of large capital- 
ists may break up aud destroy small copart- 
nerships, and force into servitude men who 
have sufficient intelligence to carry on busi- 
ness of their own : consequently the rights of 
the people demand that capital should be 
limited, both in individuals and in companies. 
A graduated tax should be, and no doubt 
will be, imposed so as to disintegrate heavy 
capital, and so as to build up small copartner- 
ships and co-operative societies in accordance 
with the growth of intelligence which the 
State is imparting to the people by its public 
schools. Thus we have two conflicting ele- 
ments in the field : capitalists want content- 
ed laborers, and these must necessarily be 
ignorant in order to be willing servants. A 
good education destroys their contentment 
with servitude. Either our public schools 
must cease or else our large factories must. 
The conflict is inevitable. The majority vote 
is with labor. The laborers can vote a revo- 
lution in these monopolies in a single day. 
They can impose a heavy graduated tax on 
factories that employ many hands ; they can 
exempt from tax all small societies and co- 
operative bodies. This will supersede strikes 
by opening up hundreds of new avenues for 
their skill. It will make them independent 
citizens instead of slaves to capitalists. As 
long as laborers are simply a commodity to 
be bought for wages they will be at the 
mercy of capital. Their strikes are a great 
folly in this country, where, by the ballot, 
they can become masters of the situation. For 
all fixed capital let us establish a graduated 
tax something like the following : 

Upon all estates of $10,000 and under $20,- 
000, one half of one per cent. 

Upon all estates of $20,000 and under $40,- 
000, three fourths of one per cent. 

Upon all estates of $40,000 and under $60, 
000, one per cent. 

Upon all estates of $60,000 and under 
$100,000, one and one quarter per cent. 

Upon all estates of $100,000 and under 
$200,000, one and one half per cent. 

Upon all estates of $200,000 and under 
$300,000, one and three quarters per cent. 

When the tax so laid upon the estate of an 
individual, up to the maximum amount of 
$300,000, shall have been satisfied by a com- 
pliance with the rates of this schedule, then 
an additional tax shall be laid upon all es- 
tates exceeding the mazimum limit of $300,- 
000, and commencing with this said sum of 
$300,000, to make a new scale of graduated 
taxes as follows : 

Upon all estates of over $300,000 and un- 
der $500,000, five per cent. 



r> 



Upon all estates of $500,000 and under 
$1,000,000, six per ceut. 

Upon all estates of $1,000,000 and under 
$2,000,000, ten per cent, 

Upon all estates of $2,000,000 and under 
$3,000,000, twelve per cent. 

Upon all estates of $3,000,000 and under 
$5,000,000, twenty per cent. 

Upon ail estates of $5,000,000 and over, 
fifty per cent. 

And on all capital and incomes of manu- 
facturers, owned by individuals or companies, 
about in the same ratio, but exempting from 
tax all co-operative bodies. The pupils we 
are educating- in our public schools will not 
then be required to become merely servants 
to rich capitalists. But it may be said we 
have no moral right to propose a graduating 
tax. In answer to this we must bear in mind 
that we have done this for many years on 
large corporations. Before we permit a rail- 
way charter to be granted, its rate of tariff on 
travel must be specified. We have as much 
ri^ht to say the same to large manufacturers. 
We permit the railway to charge only three 
cents a mile for passengers ; but if you or I 
carry a passenger in our private wagon, we 
are permitted to charge as much as we can 
get. On this well-established/benefit to society 
we take the lesson, and apply a graduated tax 
on all capital and capital producers. Now 
let us turn our attention to another unsightly 
thing in our laud of freedom, the rich bank- 
rupts. We have many, many rich men who 
have been bankrupt many times — men who 
obtained their riches by " failing." By abol- 
ishing the law of imprisonment for debt we 
gave a comparative respectability to all un- 
fortunate speculators. This has grown badly 
upon us. It has come to pass that a " failure" 
or a bankruptcy is not disreputable. 

A reporter at a fashionable watering-place 
hotel, last summer, estimated out of six 
hundred guests there were three hundred 
and eighty who had failed in business, 
within five years, from one to a dozen 
times each, making money every time. Yet 
they sported their horses and carriages, and 
dress and diamonds with as much sang froid 
as if no shadow had ever crossed their ways. 
This is all wrong. Many such fellows have 
caused hundreds of widows and orphans 
to suffer for the necessaries of life, and yet 
they heartlessly live thus as the " A Num- 
ber Ones " of society. They are rich now ; 
perhaps they will be bankrupt next year. 
They care not. They are- never poor'. No 
stigma rests upon them. And their number 
is legion. Now, we have a moral right to 
withhold honorable situations from such men. 
And yet these very men, who have become 
advertised and known by their bad behavior, 
are the persons who are put on investigating 
committees to hunt up fraudulent politi- 
cians ! And is this the wisdom of our coun- 
try? 

Now, what shall we do ? We have found 
that investigating committees are essential. 



Instead of having them appointed (which is 
not republican or democratic), let us elect 
them. We will elect them for that purpose 
only. And we will give them power too. 
Give them power not only to investigate 
all official business, but power to try 
and to punish any dishonest or usurping 
official in their own way. They shall 
be over officials, capable of commanding in 
the name of the people the whys and where- 
fores of all transactions in every office in the 
land. This is but just. If we must have in- 
vestigating committees — and the last twenty 
years proves that we must — we will elect 
them. We are not a people to submit to ap- 
pointments. But whom shall we elect ? For 
we must not elect men who can be bribed. 
Certainly we would not elect any man that 
ever held a political office. Certainly we 
would not elect any man who had ever been 
a bankrupt, or was in the habit of failing in 
business; Certainly we could not elect law- 
yers ; for they are semi-official. Certainly we 
would not elect a man thatpaid no taxes ; for 
he has no money in the State to inspect. 
Well, then, who shall we find? He ought 
at least to be an owner, full and clear of all 
debts, of his own homestead, or a contributor 
of taxes to the extent of such a valuation in 
the town where he lives. And now, in what 
way can we prevent these benefactors becom- 
ing bad as soon as we elect them ? We an- 
swer this by saying, elect enough of them. 
For example, let us elect twice as many in- 
vestigators as we elect officers. Thus, sup- 
pose in a city we elect sixty men to office, in- 
cluding mayor 'recorder, comptroller, judges, 
aldermen, etc. , let us elect also of our bene- 
factors one hundred and twenty men, who 
are to be the investigating committee, say for 
five years, for the city officials alone. It can- 
not be expected that all of this one hundred 
and twenty men devote their whole time to 
watching our sixty officers. But this they 
can : the one hundred and twenty benefac- 
tors can, as soon after their election as possi- 
ble, select two or three of their number who 
shall be on active duty all the time for three 
months. And at the expiration of such three 
months, other two can be selected to relieve 
them for another three months. The newly- 
selected investigators should be required to 
review the services of their piedecessors. 
In this way one half of the one hundred and 
twenty elected benefactors would have served 
in the five years for which they were elected. 
It will be seen here that no one or two or 
half a dozen bribes would succeed in covering 
up an official fraud. Now, let us carry the 
same proposal to the State and National 
official. Let, us elect twice as many of our 
greatest and best benefactors as there are 
elected officers. Let these benefactors like- 
wise elect from their number, for short terms, 
investigators who shall be on active duty all 
the while. Let these be constantly replaced 
by new ones, who shall always reinspect the 
w r ork of their predecessors. 



These benefactors should be over our elect- 
ed officers about in the same manner as a 
banker is over his clerks, except in this re- 
spect : when any official misconduct is evi- 
dent, the inspectors on active duty shall sum- 
mon the whole body of elected benefactors for 
the city, if a city offence, or the elected bene- 
factors for the State, if a State offence, or the 
United States benefactors, if an official offence 
against the nation. These benefactors, or 
investigating commissioners, shall now consti- 
tute a court of themselves, with power to try, 
and to punish if necessary, any such officer 
offending, to impeach him,* and to ask the 
people to elect another or to have one ap- 
pointed as the case may require. But in no 
case shall these investigating committees 
make or repeal any of the laws or acts of gov- 
ernment of city, State, or United States. 
They should be exempt for life from military 
and jury duty, and not liable to arrest except 
for assault. They should draw pay while in 
active service, and at as high a rate as the 
highest salaried officer in their respective de- 
partments, except the salary of the President 
of the United States. In the eligibility to 
become elected benefactors, or investigating 
commissioners, no distinction should be 
made on account of sex, race, or color, or re- 
ligion, except that he or she shall be a 
natural-born American citizen, and qualified 
as before mentioned, and have a good Eng- 
lish education. 

A few general definitions of the powers of 
these investigating commissioners may not be 
out of place here. Let it be remembered that 
their duties are to be confined to the inspec- 
tion of officials elected by the people. If an 
officer, having violated his trust, be tried by 
the investigating commission, such trial shall 
be final, from which there shall be no appeal ; 
but the decision shall be signed by more than 
one half of the investigating commission. 
Misconduct in lawyers, being semi-official, 
shall also come under the jurisdiction of the 
investigating commission, and not under the 
courts as at present. The elected investi- 
gating commission shall, by their selected 
active members, by virtue of their position, be 
privileged to enter all offices, at reasonable 



* Of coarse this implies that the present impeach- 
ment laws should he repealed. 



hours, where elected officials transact their 
business, inspect any and all official books, 
accounts, transactions, etc., belonging to 
the official business of any elected official. 

In fact, it must come to pass that the people 
through their own delegates can go into a 
mayor's office, treasurer's office, comptroller's 
office, or any other office under the control of 
any man elected by the people, and compel 
him to render an account of his services, just 
as any of us would now command our own 
agent. This is the next higher liberty await- 
ing the American people. Have we intelli- 
gence and manhood enough to put forth our 
hands and grasp the boon ? Or shall we, like 
nations before our time, permit the debauch- 
ery .'and fraud of politicians to engulf us in 
financial ruin and anarchy, on which history 
shall again repeat the spectacle of military 
rule? 

Thus ends the project. The subject is for 
the people to deal with. But before closing, 
let us remember the prophecies of the past 
Mr. Burritt, the learned blacksmith, a truly 
great philosopher, did all he could, ten years 
before the recent great rebellion, to avert the 
great calamity by purchasing the slaves' free- 
dom by the sale of Western lands. This might 
have been done, had we been wise, for one 
thousand million dollars. We failed to do 
it. War ensued ; it cost us three thousand 
million dollars and one million men ! Not 
only Mr. Burritt, but hundreds of our wisest 
men, wrote and lectured to show that the two 
opposing elements, freedom and slavery, 
would surely end in war. But we heeded 
not. Will we ever become wiser ? At the 
present time there are thousands of our 
wisest and best citizens who prophesy a coming 
conflict not far ahead. Shall we again close 
our eyes and ears, and heed not the signs of 
the times ? 

P.S. All orders for these pamphlets, from 
the trade, should be addressed to " The 
American News Company," 119 and 121 Nas- 
sau St., N. Y. 

And all orders from different branches of 
this society in different States, and orders 
from the " National League" and " Star in the 
East" should be addressed to "The Society 
for the Elevation of Liberal Government," 
128 W. 34th St., N. Y. 



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